£100m compo after tracks damage hits 250,000 trains

BROKEN, cracked or warped rail tracks have delayed or cancelled almost 250,000 trains during the past three years — costing an estimated £100million in compensation.

- By Matthew Davis

Network Rail, which is owned by the Government, has responsibility for maintaining the tracks and ends up paying huge cheques to train companies if faulty lines mean their services cannot run.

Its records showed last year there were 2,706 separate incidents where problems with the tracks affected train services, leading to delays of almost 16,000 hours to services.

The figures mean on an average day there were more than 200 trains affected by faulty railway lines delaying passengers for 14 hours and 24 minutes.